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© Documentation Simone Jung 

Biography

of Lise Cristiani

Discover the exceptional destiny of Lise Cristiani (1825-1853), a Parisian cello prodigy, the first woman to tour Siberia, whose talent and short life marked the history of romantic music.

Brief biography, extracted from the Detailed Chronology of the Documentation.

1825

Lise was born on December 4th in Paris, daughter of Lisberthe Barbier, single, aged 20. Birth name: Agathe Barbier.

1827

Lisberthe married Étienne Chretien, a 47-year-old family friend. In the act of legitimation, Lisberthe changed Lise's date of birth to December 24, Christmas Eve.

1832

Lise lives in Paris with her grandparents, who are giving her an artistic education.

1833

Lise takes piano lessons from Auguste Wolff (nd), then lessons in harmony, composition (nd) and singing (nd).

[(nd): undocumented]

1842

Beginning (nd) of his cello lessons with Bernard Benazet.

1844

January – February: First concerts (with other young musicians) at the Salle Herz in Paris.

– March: His third concert causes a scandal.

– December: Fourth concert at Salle Herz

(still with other young musicians).

1845

February: "Grand Opening Concert" Herz Hall

attended by the entire Parisian musical and social scene.

– Until April, eight highly acclaimed concerts in Paris.

– April: Concert in Rouen (nd) and purchase of his Stradivarius.

– May-August: Five concerts in Vienna, then Linz, Regensburg, Nuremberg

and Baden-Baden.

– September: Maybe in Prague (nd).

– October: Three concerts in Leipzig at the invitation of Felix Mendelssohn.

– November-December: “The lioness of the day” in Berlin.

1846

January-February: Stettin, Frankfurt an der Oder, Breslau (Wrocław), Freiberg in Saxony, Dresden and Magdeburg.

– March-April: Concerts in Braunschweig, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel and Copenhagen.

– May-June: Tour in Sweden (Stockholm, Uppsala, Gothenburg), then in Christiania (Oslo).

– Early July: Return to Paris (not mentioned in the press).

– October: Concert at the Palace of Saint-Cloud.

– November: Concert at the Weimar court.

– December: Concert for the Queen in Berlin, departure for Glogau (Głogów).

1847

January: Concerts in Breslau (Wrocław), Posen (Poznań), Danzig, Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Dorpat (Tartu).

– February: In Saint Petersburg, a private concert for the Tsarina.

– March: Failure of his two concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre.

– April: Instead of returning to Paris (via London), she gives two more modest concerts.

– Summer: Two concerts in Pavlovsk.

– December: Concert at Count Kouschéleff-Bezborodko's and departure for Moscow.

1849

January-March: After two concerts in Tobolsk, she continues towards Irkutsk, with stops (and concerts?)

in Omsk, Tomsk, Barnaul and Krasnoyarsk.

– April: First concert at the Irkutsk Theatre.

– May: She participates in a major six-month expedition led by Governor General Nikolai N. Muravyov,

with his Parisian wife Katerina Nicolaïevna, née Élisabeth Bourgeois de Richemont.

– August: Lise gives the first known concert in Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka.

– September: Concerts in Ayane and Yakutsk.

– October: Return to Irkutsk and excursion to Kyakhta, on the Chinese border (nd).

– November: Farewell concert in Irkutsk and return to Moscow.

– December: Concerts in Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul and Tomsk.

1850

January: Two concerts in Tobolsk with Piotr N. Svistounov.

– February: Having returned exhausted to Moscow, she only gave one concert in March.

– And then, mystery…

1851

March: Small concert in Voronezh and concert with Mrs. Salomon-Nissen in Moscow.

– Lise writes that she is thinking of selling her beautiful cello to return to Paris.

1852

Finally recovered, she left with the pianist August Mahler for Ukraine.

– February-March: Concerts in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kyiv and Vitebsk.

– April: Concerts in Vilnius and return to Moscow.

– July: New start with August Mahler for Odessa (two concerts).

– Summer in Odessa: A cure for her declining health (nd)?

– December: Departure for the Caucasus, stopover in Stravropol before arriving in Grozno (Grozny).

1853

January: Lise leaves again with a military escort, concert in Vladikavkaz.

– February: The concert in Tiflis (Tbilisi), scheduled for February 10, has to be postponed due to his poor health.

– July: Last concert in Pyatigorsk, attended by the young officer Leo Tolstoy.

– October: Death from cholera in Novocherkassk, on October 14 according to our Gregorian calendar (October 2 according to the Julian calendar, which was in use in Russia at the time). Lise was 27 years old.

Tombe de Lise © Documentation Waldemar Kamer

Project for the tomb of Lise Barbier Cristiani, "Drawing by Thérond after a drawing sent from

"Novo-Tcherkask to his family," published in Le Tour du Monde in 1863 © Waldemar Kamer Documentation

Les amis de Lise Cristiani

To contact us in Paris

In French, German and English: waldemarkamer@yahoo.fr

In Russian: mtgrisenti@gmail.com

_________________________
Please excuse us for the inconvenience that the English pages are not yet completed. We are currently preparing the Lise 200th birthday celebration in Paris on 4 December. All of Lise’s friends are warmly welcome! You will find the updates on the French page: ACTUALITES.

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